In Rememberance

We should all, if we have not, take a few minutes to remember today. There are many reasons to remember, and we all should remember and mark today in our own ways. There is no need to go through the details. We know them by now. We know them by heart. We know where we were, how we felt, who we lost and who we have. We know how we have been changed, and how our world is not the same, nor ever will be again.

There has been a lot of build up to today, many articles written, documentaries assembled and films aired and screened. I do not want to add to the din. It has become overwhelming for most of us. I have read only a little, and seen only a handful of the programs and none of the fictionalized portrayals of the events of that day. It is not that I do not care, or that I am trying to bury my head in the sand. I think I heard it best described when I heard radio personality Tom Leykis say how most of us are fatigued by it. I would have to agree with that assessment for the most part. I am fatigued. By the constant reminders, by the half assed changes in security that seems asinine when much bigger holes are still left open for exploitation. By the constant lying and backroom dealing that seem to be the real mission of those in charge, not our safety and security. Let me throw out a few examples. Example 1, I read Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback article from today. He mentions how he saw a traveler go through security, was cleared, and then proceeded to pull toothpaste and a contact lens bottle out of his pants and put them back in his carry on, thereby skirting the mandate of not having any containers of fluid in his luggage on the plane. How is this security? Example 2, the government is in constant arguments and fights about what to do with illegal aliens and our open borders and what to do with them, but they clear the use of new RFID chips in all new passports that carry all of your vital information, and these chips have a flaw in them where the information can be read from several feet away, much farther than they should be. What does this mean? It means anyone with access to the scanning technology can steal your identification and then use that to bring anyone they want into this country, legally. Look it up, the information is easy to find. Check out this article for more. Example 3, our president, who said 4 years ago it was imperative to stop Iraq, now says being there has little to do with the war on terrorism. If that is so, why are we there? Example 4, please pick up the latest issue of Sports Illustrated. Please read the fantastic article on Pat Tillman. Read it and read it again. It may take a few times to absorb it all. Here was a man who made decisions based on a higher calling. Who lived his life truthfully and honorably. And even when he saw that what he signed up for was not what was advertised, he still stayed with his mission. Because it would be wrong of him to back away. And then, after he was killed by his fellow rangers in a bad accident, his government used him as a martyr and a poster boy while covering up their incompetence and poor decision making. A man that lived his life with honor, truth and dignity was used in death by those who only know lies, manipulation and dishonor. I pray his mother finally finds the answers she is tirelessly hunting for and some peace for herself and the memory of her son.

Like most, I am fatigued. I am tired of watching inept leadership continue to create one problem after another and expanding already created problems to epic proportions. I am tired of seeing our country portrayed all over the world as the devil. I am tired of seeing each new security measure put into place, with no rhyme or reason, and run by those who really do not care and could probably be bought for a price. I am tired of watching more and more civil liberties many before us fought for rolled over by a government who takes them away under the guise that they are doing what it takes to keep us safe, when they are doing nothing but keeping already law abiding people safely under control. I am tired of knowing that the way things are run, something worse than 9/11 could happen again. I am tired of seeing video and communications from terrorist organizations continuing to call for death and destruction, urging greater destruction and further death each time. I am tired of having a basis of fear underlying everything, knowing that the more we do to stop them, the angrier, more organized, more determined and more fanatical the terrorists become. I am tired of hearing about troops dying and becoming permanently wounded due to inept leadership, poor planning and lack of forward thought on missions by military leaders who are responsible for their lives and the success of said missions. I am tired of people soiling the memories of those that died with attention grabbing headlines meant only to turn the talking head spotlight on themselves and their need for attention and pointless controversy. I am tired of seeing how quickly we forget how important the people who put their lives on the line everyday really are to us. This one I must say something further on. For a while after 9/11, I finally saw people providing the proper respect to fire, police and emergency personnel. When they were charging hard toward an emergency, people moved. Now, most I see act as though it is an inconvenience to pull over and let them pass. I see some that do not; they keep rolling along, putting these firemen and women at an unnecessary risk. To all you people who do this, who wait until the last second to pull over, forcing emergency personnel to slow down and delaying them further from saving lives, I want you to think about what you are doing. I want you to give it a long hard thought to how you are holding them back. And then I want you to think what if that were someone you loved and cared about at the other end of that call, and then think what if they died because the emergency personnel could not get there in time because some jerk off slowed them down as they tried to get through traffic. Think about that the next time you ignore the sirens and decide if your day is really worth the few seconds you will save by disrespecting these brave men and women. And finally, I am tired of feeling scared and worried that for all we say we are doing, we are not doing enough, if anything, to truly keep us safe.

But I do not want any of these things to take away from remembering those who died, those who sacrificed their lives to save others, or those who continue to do so with honor and dignity. Today, I want us to not just think and remember what happened, I would like us to step up and truly honor those who have died. We should demand accountability from our leaders. Why are our troops ill prepared for the enemy? Why they are not properly trained? Why they are not properly equipped? Why are only half of the recommendations from the 9/11 Commission panel in place, when by this time all of them should be operational? Recommendations like correcting the inability for different emergency response agencies to communicate with each other should have been paramount, yet this one is still sitting on the shelf. Why is that? Why do I not feel any safer now than I did 5 years ago? And why, if we have the best military and intelligence in the world, have we still been unable to capture Bin Laden?

But we should not stop there. We should look at ourselves as well and demand accountability from ourselves and each other. Why are we so apathetic about these things that we are willing to stick our heads in the sands of pointless pop culture and reality television instead of taking a vested interest in these important matters of our world? Why do we let our leaders make decisions without our input? Remember, this is a country of the people, by the people and for the people. They work for us, not the other way around. If we do not like the way they are running things, we can demand change. We pay them, we pay to run things. This is our country, and if we don’t like it, we can change it. Tell them we want better support for our troops. Tell them we want them deployed and stationed better. Tell them we want changes that make us safer and the world better, not half assed efforts that only mask real problems and piss the world off in the process. If we really want to remember and honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for us, then we need to step up and get involved and make some real changes in our country and the world. They did, it is the least we can do for them.